The crash of Flight 537 Clues point to accident in deadly N.Y. jet crash [AP photo] NEW YORK -- When 5-year-old Christopher Hila Jr. heard the loud bang, he looked out the window and saw something falling from the sky. He said it looked like "a plane with no wings." Crash caused as engine broke up WASHINGTON -- The American Airlines jet that crashed in New York lost all or part of an engine in flight, and investigators said preliminary evidence pointed strongly toward mechanical failure rather than terrorism as the cause. Airport's walls echo lamentations SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Deafening cries of sorrow echoed through the airport Monday as relatives awaiting the arrival of loved ones collapsed in grief after being told that American Airlines Flight 587 crashed shortly after takeoff in New York. Community hard hit, yet again NEW YORK -- The question lingered on the lips of high school teacher Peggy Epstein. Crash adds to woes for American American Airlines workers may have figured things couldn't get any worse for the nation's largest carrier. Airport hotel ready for sad, familiar role NEW YORK -- For the fourth time in five years, a nondescript hotel at the edge of Kennedy Airport has become the gathering spot for families grieving over the loss of life in a commercial air disaster. Pilots aren't trained for engine dropping off aircraft The Airbus A300 that crashed shortly after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport on Monday shed part of one of its two engines, raising the possibility that the jetliner had suffered a catastrophic breakup of the engine or that the engine had detached from the plane -- an event so severe that pilots do not even train for it. Guiliani: Tragedy's reassuring face, Act II NEW YORK -- In a time of trauma and a transition in government, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani found himself in a familiar position Monday, rushing to the site of another emergency where he comforted families of survivors, took charge of the city's response to the crisis and consoled New Yorkers alarmed that their city might once again be the target of a terrorist attack.

Report: Iraqis lobbed shell into Kuwait
KUWAIT CITY -- Iraqi forces are thought to have fired a mortar shell that landed near a U.N. patrol and observation post on the Kuwaiti side of the border, a spokesman for the international observers said Monday.

War boils down to alliance of mirages
GARARI MERZA KABIR, Afghanistan -- It is a peculiar fact of an Afghan war that friends become enemies and suddenly friends again, always knowing that either one would have killed the other if they'd had the chance.

Victory in hand, alliance exacts ugly revenge
KALAI NASRO, Afghanistan -- Near an abandoned Taliban bunker Monday, Northern Alliance soldiers dragged a wounded Taliban soldier out of a ditch. As the terrified man begged for his life, the alliance soldiers pulled him to his feet.

After Taliban, next to go were beards
TALOQAN, Afghanistan -- In this town just freed from the Taliban by Northern Alliance troops, the busiest spot was Amon's Barbershop, where men lined up to have their beards shaved off.

Red Cross will return donations to those who request it
WASHINGTON -- The American Red Cross, under fire for its use of money raised since the terrorist attacks, said it will return donations to any contributor who requests a refund.

Powell suggests Muslim coalition in Kabul
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that Taliban forces were close to collapse across a broad swath of northern Afghanistan and that it might soon be necessary to send in an international "coalition of the willing" led by soldiers from Muslim nations to secure the capital, Kabul, and prepare the ground for an interim government.

3 journalists killed in Taliban attack
KHWAJA BAHUADDIN, Afghanistan -- Two French radio reporters and a German magazine journalist were killed when they came under Taliban fire while traveling with Northern Alliance forces, their employers and colleagues said Monday.

Crash disrupts air travel in the eastern U.S.
NEW YORK -- The American Airlines crash in New York forced airlines to temporarily ground or reroute dozens of flights Monday, disrupting travel across the eastern half of the country.